1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of digital networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web, and the like, and more particularly to systems and methods for generating meta-data regarding Web pages which are accessible and can be downloaded thereover.
2. Description of the Related Art
The World Wide Web, together with other resources available over the Internet, provide a mechanism by which users, using computers or other information access devices, can obtain large amounts of information about a wide variety of subjects from a large number of information providers. Generally, information provided by information providers is in the form of “Web pages,” generally in HTML (HyperText mark-up language) format, which is a text-based format that describes how the respective Web page is to be displayed by the user's computer, and provides textual information, typically in ASCII form, and graphical information generally in a compressed format such as “GIF” or “JPEG.” In addition, a Web page will typically have HyperText-like “links” identifying other Web pages which may be provided by the same provider or other information providers which may be of interest to someone viewing the particular Web page.
Typically, links to other Web pages which may be contained in a particular Web page will be relatively limited, most notably to those links which the provider of the one Web page knows about when the one Web page is originally generated or updated, and will likely not be an exhaustive and updated set of Web pages which may be available over the World Wide Web which may be related thereto. U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,548 to Burner et al., assigned to the assignee of the present application and incorporated herein by reference, describes a system for augmenting a Web page with meta-data including information as to other Web sites which may provide Web pages containing further information which he or she may find of interest in connection with the Web page he or she is currently viewing.
In the system described in the Burner patent, after a computer user has enabled his or her computer's Web browser to download a Web page for display in its (that is, the browser's) window on the computer's video display, client software also executed on the computer enables the computer to access a Web site, operating as a meta-data server, which maintains meta-data for a number of Web sites, to determine whether the Web site from which the Web page is being downloaded is associated with meta-data. If the meta-data server has meta-data for that Web site, it will download the meta-data to the computer, which the client software can enable to be displayed in its window on the computer's video display. Typically, the meta-data may include, for example, identification of other Web sites and/or Web pages which the user may wish to visit for other information related to the Web page being downloaded. As displayed in the client software's window, the Web site and page identifications are in the form of links, which a user can, by clicking thereon, enable the browser to initiate a download.